Pickathon music festival takes sustainability further this year with steel beer cups

Ryan White, The Oregonian

It's one thing to be conscious of the environment, to be kind to the environment, to do the little things that make you feel green. It's another thing altogether to be crazy.

What Pickathon, the 12-year-old indie/roots/Americana music festival taking place this weekend in Happy Valley, will attempt is probably crazy, almost certainly nuts.

Pickathon is going almost plastic-free, from 35,000 plastic beer cups to none and from 15,000-20,000 plastic water bottles to none.

"And that's 20 to 25 percent of our garbage," co-founder Zale Schoenborn says.

Sounds great.

Quick question: How?

Because in the entire history of people gathering outdoors on warm summer days to listen to band after band in the festival setting, they've always been drinking their beer in plastic cups and their water from plastic bottles.

Sustainability has always been at the core of Pickathon's mission. It assists with bike routes and works with EcoShuttle for transportation to and from Pendarvis Farm, where the festival takes place. It maintains the site throughout the year. Since 2008, the Woods Stage has been solar-powered.

This year, solar panels have been added to the Galaxy Barn. Throughout the year, those are expected to generate an equal amount of power to the energy used during the festival by the Galaxy Barn stage and nearby vendors.

But none of that asks much of festival-goers. Going almost plastic-free asks a lot.

"I'm a realist," Schoenborn says. "Are we really going to be able to do this" without angering everyone?

Yes. He thinks they can.

It starts with Klean Kanteen, a Chico, Calif.-based company with creative and marketing offices in Portland. It has been making those nice stainless steel water bottles since 2004.

Ethan Jewett, Klean Kanteen's creative director, says the company's involvement began last year when co-owner Jeff Cresswell was at a music festival and was handed his beverage in a plastic cup. Being an environmentalist, he didn't dig that. Being in business, he saw an opportunity.

He asked a question: "How would you field a reusable cup in a festival setting?" Jewett says.

Terry Groves, another of Pickathon's co-founders, was at this time getting interested in Klean Kanteen and wondering what else the festival could do. A few phone calls brought them together, and in May, Pickathon went on its website to ask the people what they thought of plastic-free.

Typical of the responses was this: "YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS."

Onward they charged.

"I give Ethan a lot of credit," Schoenborn says. "That guy is a creative force."

As a result, there will be no plastic water bottles sold anywhere. Bring your own container, and there will be plenty of free water. If you don't bring a container, Klean Kanteen will be on hand to sell you one.

That's the easy problem. The beer garden is a different eco-beast.

The first beer purchased will be $9, and it'll come with a stainless steel mug decorated with the Pickathon logo. Klean Kanteen has designed a ring for the cup that'll allow you to clip it to a backpack or belt or whatever.

Also, there'll be pegboards in the beer garden and Sharpies for personalizing your cup. When you're done with the mug, hang it up until you need it again.

There will be water stations for rinsing and cleaning, and the water from those will be loaded onto tractors and used to help keep down dust in the parking lots.

Backstage presents a different problem because touring musicians are used to bottled water and beer in plastic cups and never having to worry about where their mug is. Backstage meals will be served on hard plates and hard silverware, and there's a dishwasher for all that. No plastic used.

Pickathon volunteers will continually wash and reuse the beer mugs, while allowing musicians to take one if they want. They won't have to keep track of that one mug the entire weekend.

In theory, that's how it'll work.

Jewett says Klean Kanteen's plan is to take what it learns at Pickathon and present it to bigger festivals the company talked to previously. "There's the obvious pushback that it can't be done," he says. Klean Kanteen heard the same thing when it began selling the water bottles, he says.

Both sides are confident enough in the plan that they say their main worry is running out of mugs, that people will want a full set for their home or office.

"I think that's one possibility," Schoenborn says. "Or everyone is going to mass-lose them, or have them stolen. I don't know how well people are going to be responsible for their cups. I think I'm not giving them enough credit, though. And we do have a margin for error."